2016-2017 Artist-in-Residence: Julia Wolfe

Composer Julia Wolfe (http://juliawolfemusic.com/) is the Andrew W. Mellon Arts and the Common Good Artist-in-Residence for 2016-2017 at Drew University. Wolfe, a 2016 MacArthur Fellow (https://www.macfound.org/fellows/974/) and winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in music, draws inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, bringing a modern sensibility to each while simultaneously tearing down the walls between them. In works such as Anthracite Fields, Steel Hammer, and a current project commissioned by the New York Philharmonic based on the role of women in the New York garment industry, she combines music composition with oral history and archival research into the lives and struggles of American workers.

During the Spring 2017 semester, Wolfe will co-teach a seminar, ART 270/MUS 260: Special Topics in Documentary Expression, with Associate Professor of Art Rebecca Soderholm. She will also partner with Professor of Economics Jennifer Olmstead on the New York Semester on Social Entrepreneurship (https://www.drew.edu/globaled/nyctrec/semester-on-social-entrepreneurship). Wolfe is currently organizing a one-day Symposium on Documentary Art: Poetic Histories, to be held in Drew’s Concert Hall 2-5PM on 9 April 2017.

As part of Wolfe’s residency, the Music Department will host a three-day residency on 24-26 April 2017 with the ensemble Wolfe co-founded, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, (http://bangonacan.org/) that will culminate in the group’s performance of Wolfe’s 2009 evening-length chamber work, Steel Hammer, in the Concert Hall. In this work, Wolfe draws on over 200 versions of the John Henry ballad and references the folk music traditions of Appalachia. She and the Bang on a Can All-Stars will be working with students, professors, and various groups on campus during the residency and throughout the year.

For more information, contact Julia Wolfe (jwolfe1@drew.edu) or Leslie Sprout, (lsprout@drew.edu), Associate Professor of Music and chair of the Music Department.

Current Events

Julia Wolfe/Symposium on Poetic Histories, Sunday 9 April 2017, 2-5PM

All events listed below will take place in the Concert Hall in the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts on the Drew campus are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis. Individuals needing assistance should contact the Office of Housing, Conferences and Hospitality at 973.408.3103 at least five working days prior to the event to ensure appropriate arrangements.

Drew Artist in Residence, composer Julia Wolfe, welcomes her artist-colleagues Beryl Korot (early pioneer in video art), Suzanne Bocanegra (performance/installation artist) and R. Luke DuBois (conceptual composer/new media artist) to join her in a discussion on documentary expression in contemporary art. These renowned artists draw from real-life events, different communities, and cultural questions to create compelling “poetic histories.” The symposium includes performance, discussion, and an up-close encounter with the artists.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Beryl Korot 2:00-2:30pm

R. Luke Dubois 2:30-3:00pm

Coffee Break 3:00-3:30pm

Suzanne Bocanegra (with featured performer Anne Gridley) 3:30-4:30pm

Q & A with Panel Speakers 4:30-5:00pm

Refreshments 5:00-5:30pm

Beryl Korot a pioneer of video art and of multiple channel work in particular. By applying specific structures inherent to loom programming to the programming of multiple channels, her work brought the modern world of video technology into conversation with the ancient hand loom. She has created a body of work on handwoven canvas which encoded a visual language based on the grid structure of woven cloth and is currently creating drawings which incorporate digital embroidery.

Suzanne Bocanegra is an artist living and working in New York City. Her piece “When a Priest Marries a Witch, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Paul Lazar” premiered at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC in May 2010 and travelled to the Wexner Center, the Tang Museum, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, James Cohan Gallery, as well as the Chocolate Factory Theater, the Prelude Theater Festival in NYC and the Fusebox Theater Festival in Austin.

Anne Gridley is a performer, dramaturg, teacher, and artist. As a founding member of Nature Theater of Oklahoma, she toured nationally and internationally [Poetics: a Ballet Brut, No Dice, Romeo and Juliet, Life & Times: Episodes 1-5]. Since 2014, she has performed with a variety of companies, including: Caborca [Hamlet, The Entitlement, Distant Star]; Jerome Bel [The Show Must Go On, Ballet: NY]; 7 Daughters of Eve [12 Shouts to the Ten Forgotten Heavens]; and Human Head Performance Group [Due to Events]. She is currently writing a show for herself, with the working title of Anne is Bag.

R. Luke Dubois is a composer, artist, and performer who explores the temporal, verbal, and visual structures of cultural and personal ephemera. He holds a doctorate in music composition from Columbia University, and has lectured and taught worldwide on interactive sound and video performance. He has collaborated on interactive performance, installation, and music production work with many artists and organizations including Toni Dove, Todd Reynolds, Jamie Jewett, Bora Yoon, Michael Joaquin Grey, Matthew Ritchie, Elliott Sharp, Michael Gordon, Maya Lin, Bang on a Can, Engine 27, Harvestworks, and LEMUR.

Julia Wolfe/Arts & Letters Salon, Sunday 23 April 2017, 12-2:30 p.m.

Arts & Letters Salon: Telling History through a Musical LensAn Intimate Discussion with Acclaimed Composer Julia WolfeA special event for the Caspersen School’s Arts & Letters community, made possible by the generous support of Werner Kofler T’03, G’05.

Location: Seminary Hall
$10 for alumni and friends; free for the on-campus communityRSVP online by April 15

Julia Wolfe/Bang on a Can Residency, 24-26 April 2017

All events listed below will take place in the Concert Hall in the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts on the Drew campus and are free and open to the public. Seating available on a first come, first served basis. Individuals needing assistance should contact the Office of Housing, Conferences and Hospitality at 973.408.3103 at least five working days prior to the event to ensure appropriate arrangements.

Monday 24 April7-9PM Steel Hammer – An Inside Look: A Discussion with Julia Wolfe and the Bang on a Can All-Stars on the Making of Steel Hammer
In this lecture-demonstration, Julia Wolfe and the Bang on a Can All-Stars will perform music and discuss the building of this new work, which explores the quintessential American worker ballad John Henry and its implication for labor history then and now. Q&A following the talk.

Tuesday 25 April 1:15-3:45PM Open Reading of Student Works (ART 270/MUS 260: Special Topics in Documentary Expression, co-taught by Julia Wolfe and Associate Professor of Art Rebecca Soderholm) and Q&A with the musicians

Wednesday 26 April 3:30-6:30PM Open rehearsal for 8PM concert, plus Q&A with the musicians